Dell To Push Chameleon Kiosk
Written by Evan SchumanDell will introduce next month a multi-function kiosk that is designed to change function throughout the day, being used perhaps in the morning to check items in at the loading dock before spending the afternoon as a customer-facing pharmacy information booth.
The as-yet-unnamed 12-inch touchscreen units will likely list for about $1,300 to $1,800 each and will use power-over-Ethernet, said Brian Slaughter, Dell’s director of retail.
Slaughter made much of the kiosk’s power-over-Ethernet capability, partially because of its environmentally-friendly aspect (the kiosk uses LEDs to keep power needs down) and also because of the lower operating costs and greater flexibility, he said. "The cost of running Ethernet is substantially less then running power" and video and sound can run over Ethernet at much greater distances, allowing for many of the commercials and other videos needed to be stored on a server at the other end of the store.
Wal-Mart and Target have been testing the units, he said.
-Marc
December 21st, 2007 at 10:42 am
PoE is definitely an efficient means of enabling interactive devices to be easily deployed on the retail sales floor. Delivering power over ethernet is not only less costly, but also minimizes liability associated with 110v electricity being installed where accessible to customers (and their children).
Also consider that since there are lower deployment costs, retailers will likely more quickly adopt and begin allocating coop funds provided by vendors for in-store marketing and media advertising of their products.
January 2nd, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Changing function (actually, changing application, or the page being displayed) by time-of-day sounds like a simple software function. Maybe I’m missing something.